An exhibition in Kerkrade looks at the future of meat production.

Post-burgers, laboratory sweetbreads and meat powder – the exhibition “Meat The Future“ currently running in the design museum “Cube” in Kerkrade deals with the topic of ‘meat’. The proposition of the curators is as follows. By 2050, world population will grow to nine billion souls. It will be unfeasible for us to continue producing and consuming meat the way we have been doing so far. That would use up too much land and water, and too much greenhouse gas would be emitted into the atmosphere.

Scientists expect cultured meat to become a sustainable and animal-friendly alternative. Cultured meat is produced from animal cells that are grown into a piece of meat in a bioreactor.
The exhibition confronts visitors with 30 gourmet cultured-meat dishes that may well land on our plates one day – perfectly presented by a company that specialises in creating imitation food for window displays.

And why would a design museum deal with a subject like this? Well, the “Cube” sees ‘design’ as more than shaping beautiful surfaces and also more than striving to merge functionality with aesthetics. The museum’s curators want to pose socially relevant questions and explore potential answers in the form of products and production processes that promise sustainability – they want to ‘design’ the future.

And this particular future has already begun. The first laboratory-grown burgers have long since been grilled and guzzled down…